His mission: To protect Mimiga from murderous robots. His purpose: To destroy an artifact that gives anyone extreme powers. His destiny: To work along with a fellow robot that he doesn't want to trust. His feelings: They drastically change as he gets to know Curly Brace. His sanity: It slowly goes down as he witnesses deaths no one would ever want to see. Co-written w/ SoundGeare!

Hey, everybody! It's me, LunaratheAra! Me and another Cave Story fan, SoundGeare, are now writing a Cave Story fic together! The first chapter is by SoundGeare, and I'll be writing the next chapter!

I'll shut up now. :3 Enjoy the story!

A mass of robots flew through the air. Some glistened in the morning light. Some were painted dull black and held the appearance of monstrous beetles. Each of them was armed with a weapon of some kind. Some held might energy cannons while the smaller robots carried retro style lead propelling weapons or even high energy melee weapons that resembled cattle prods.

All of the robots shared a common trajectory. That floating island high up in the sky. It was immense and as they neared it seemed to grow even larger. It was composed of stone, soil, carious metals, and some type of powerful energy concealed deep within.

Among the robots there was one with a separate purpose. Though he was just a robot, an android more precisely, his name was Quote. That was what he called himself, though he had no idea why. In his hand he carried an L.P. (lead propelling) weapon, a machine gun. Unlike his companions, he was built and dressed to resemble a human. He had a radio headset attached to his head, though it was tuned to a different frequency than the other robot's radios.

That was because he took his instructions from another source.

Even as Quote watched, the island grew nearer and nearer until it was nearly upon him. Quote's feet touched down on the white stone of the island's surface.

The robots (including Quote) began to file into a dimly lit cave almost immediately. They set up some sentries to guard their back, then continued through to the end of the tunnel.

It let out into a large cavern with hanging torches and many other sources of light. The dusky smell of soil and mud wafted up from below. A quick downward glance revealed about two dozen small creatures with large floppy ears. They were cultivating a crop of multi-colored flowers.

Far below, the Mimiga worked the subterranean fields completely unaware of the battalion waiting above.

They were harvesting what flowers were ready for consumption. They also weeded and watered the gardens.

Most of the Mimiga who worked the fields were fully grown, hardworking Mimigas. However, a few of them were young troublemakers who had been assigned the tough work as a punishment.

One of them was named Arthur.

Arthur had been caught in the middle of a prank along with his friend King. That wasn't really his name, but he wanted everyone to think it was.

So now they were stuck working in the fields.

Again

Arthur leaned against his harvesting basket and let out a tired sigh.

"Just a couple more hours of this…" He muttered.

"Yeah…" King sullenly agreed.

After just a moment's rest, Arthur got back to work and was soon engrossed in the constant rhythm of harvesting.

Suddenly there was a crackling explosion and Arthur heard a scream from not too far away from him. He turned to see that several large craters had opened up and the other Mimigas were scattering. A few were on the ground with singed fur, struggling to regain their footing with terrified expressions on their faces.

A few weren't moving at all.

As Arthur watched, half a dozen metallic creatures floated down from above and took their places around the craters. Several of them began to fire humming bolts of light around the room.

His heart pounding in his ears, Arthur spun around and started to run. He saw that King seemed frozen in place. Staring at the silvery creatures. Grabbing the Mimiga by his shoulder, Arthur dragged King along with him and into an adjacent tunnel.

They had to warn the others back at the village somehow.

They had to do something.

Quote watched in horror as the other robots opened fire on the creatures. They weren't even fighting back, just running away and trying to escape into the tunnels.

Trying to turn away from the carnage, Quote saw a robot pinning down one of the creatures and about to kill it at point blank range.

Acting on instinct, Quote tackled the robot and saved the creature's life. From the corner of his eye Quote saw it scurry away from the robots and into a nearby cave.

The much larger robot easily pushed Quote away and turned its gun on him. Within seconds, Quote found himself staring down the barrel of a high powered energy rifle.

Quote dropped to his knees and rolled away from the robot. As he scrambled for the safety of the tunnels, Quote heard the gun go off behind him. Several nearby robots had noticed the brief struggle and were turning their fire on him. Quote sprinted toward the tunnel mouth and dove inside just as the air behind him filled with humming plasma and white hot lead.

It had been a couple hours since he first landed on the island.

Quote was wandering aimlessly through the labyrinthine system of tunnels. Long ago he had tuned on the electric lamp that was mounted on the barrel of his gun. Now he was seeing by a thin ray of light.

The sound of his radio crackling to life startled Quote.

"Hello? Are you there? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Where are you? My sensors show you've left the group."

"We found some creatures. Harmless ones. They were tending some kind of garden when we found them. The other robots just opened fire on them. Killed or wounded most of them…"Quote trailed off.

"I know. That's what they were sent to do. Well, part of it. I guess it's too late now for undercover work, but at least you have compassion. That's what I built you for."

"Undercover? What do you mean? What did you send me here to do?"

"I can't tell you now. I'm sorry I mentioned it. When I'm able to I will, but until then just remember this. You can't trust any of them. By now they've labeled you as defective. They'll be out to deactivate or destroy you, and if that happens it's all over. I'll try and contact you an hour from now. Stay safe until then."

The voice cut out with a burst of static and Quote found himself alone again. Around him the darkness seemed more menacing. His breath echoed off the walls and resounded though the tunnel.

Quote wasn't sure what to do. Maybe he should just stay where he was and wait.

So that was what he did. Closing his eyes, Quote transitioned into a sleeping state while holding his gun tightly.

The scenes of slaughter replayed in his mind. The white fur that had been scorched black and stained red. The terrible cries of fear and pain that had echoed over and over inside his ears. The face of that one creature as it watched the gun held close to its face.

Quote hoped that the creature had been able to escape and was safe now.

Quote's eyes snapped open suddenly as he heard footsteps coming from somewhere close at hand.

Moving slowly to his feet, Quote lifted his gun and switched off the lamp. It took a minute for his night vision to fully activate, but soon he could see in shades of grey and blue.

After a few more moments he saw the beam of a flashlight, then an approaching robot. The robot seemed oblivious to Quote's presence.

Waiting until the robot was about to pass him, Quote leapt from the shadows and knocked the newcomer to the ground.

The robot groaned in pain for a moment then started to fight back.

It was useless though, because Quote immediately swung his machine gun around and pointed it directly into the robot's face. He clicked on the light.

Looking down into the robot's squinting eyes, Quote saw that it was built and dressed to resemble a human girl.

Quote turned the light away from her eyes and growled. "I know what you're doing, what you want. Just leave me alone."

Her eyes seemed to grow wider with shock for a moment and she said, "Aren't you that robot that malfunctioned during the attack?"

She knew it was him. She was going to try and kill him.

Quote didn't want to kill her, but it seemed unavoidable.

He started to swing his gun back toward her but she was too fast. She threw an arm up and caught the gun, then launched the other hand out in the form of a fist.

It caught Quote in the chin and knocked him off balance. She threw an elbow at him and he fell to the floor.

His gun went skidding across the floor and out of reach.

As Quote reached for his gun, he heard her mutter, "Crazy robots… Damn them."

When Quote stood and turned around, fully armed, she had disappeared.

As if she had never been there in the first place, but Quote had the bruises to prove it.

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